The present invention relates to a battery pack of a vehicle which contains a battery for driving the vehicle, and more particularly, to the battery pack which is mounted on a vehicle such as an electric vehicle and a hybrid vehicle.
A battery pack which is mounted on a vehicle such as an electric vehicle and a hybrid vehicle is provided with a battery including a plurality of battery cells, and a battery case for containing the battery.
The battery pack is attached to a lower face of a floor panel of the vehicle. Because an upper face of the floor panel forms a part of a vehicle room, the battery pack is disposed outside of the vehicle room.
An electric power of the battery is supplied to a driving motor by way of an electric cable which connects the battery to the driving motor. By actuating the driving motor, wheels are rotated thereby to drive the vehicle.
In JP-A-2011-68187, for example, there is disclosed a hybrid vehicle which is provided with a battery pack having a cooling unit, a driving motor which is actuated by an electric power of the battery pack, an inverter for controlling the driving motor, an electric cable for connecting the battery pack to the inverter, and an engine.
This battery pack of the hybrid vehicle is installed in a baggage room in a rear part of the vehicle. On the other hand, the inverter and the driving motor are installed in a front part of the vehicle, and the diving motor is connected to front wheels. For this reason, the electric cable is arranged along a vehicle anteroposterior direction of the vehicle, in a center part of the vehicle in a vehicle width direction, in a state covered with a cover member.
The battery pack is provided with an air cooling fan, and a duct for feeding a cooling air which is supplied from the air cooling fan, to the battery. The duct is disposed in parallel with the electric cable, passing inside the cover member.
By the way, in case of the vehicle of four-wheel drive, it is necessary to arrange the electric cable from the battery pack respectively toward the front wheels and the rear wheels.
For example, in case where the battery pack disclosed in JP-A-2011-116321 is attached to the floor panel of the vehicle, it is necessary to withdraw two electric cables from a front end of the battery pack, so that one of the two electric cables may be arranged toward the front wheels, and at the same time, the other electric cable may be arranged toward the rear wheels. In case where the electric cable to be arranged toward the rear wheels is disposed at a lateral side of the battery pack, that is, in an end part of the vehicle in the vehicle width direction, there is such anxiety that the electric cable may be damaged due to splash of stones, attack of strange matters while the vehicle is running, or deformation of a vehicle body with an external force from a lateral side of the vehicle, and so on. Therefore, considering safety, the electric cable is disposed in the center part of the vehicle in the vehicle width direction, by passing it through the battery case of the battery pack.
On occasion of disposing the electric cable in the battery case, the electric cable is fixed to the battery case or the like with fixing clips, for the purpose of preventing movements of the electric cable (hereinafter referred to as “flappering”) due to vibration of the vehicle, which may damage surrounding members. After both ends of the electric cable are respectively connected to objects to be connected, the electric cable is fixed to a predetermined position which has been set in advance by layout or so.
However, in some cases, the electric cable has a longer length than a length which has been determined according to the layout or so, since there is a large tolerance in the length of the electric cable in a longitudinal direction. In such a case, even though a worker tries to fix the electric cable to the predetermined position inside the battery case with the fixing clips, after the both ends of the electric cable have been respectively connected to the objects to be connected, it is sometimes impossible to arrange the electric cable at a predetermined wiring position, since the electric cable is too long. As the results, the electric cable is unable to be fixed to the predetermined position with the fixing clip, in some cases.